Was boot camp really like it was depicted in the movie? During the 1960's? I'm sure some of the old timers know.

Marine Corps traditions are strong. MCRD San Diego was still very much this way in the 1990's when I rolled through.

Minus the overt physical beatings from the DI’s, 1989 was exactly like the movie.

We got to watch the movie in the squad bay during bootcamp (TV and VCR) … we got thrashed when Pvt Pyle shot Gunny Hartman. The Senior accused one of the recruits of cheering!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ronin1069,

I can only comment from my 1991/1992 experience (I checked in 2 days after Christmas). Aside from the physical beating and a different rifle, yes it was very accurate. I personally never witnessed any drill instructor strike a recruit. He didn't have to. He just had to make the entire platoon's life hell because of the one screw-up, and everything else sorted itself out.

I lost 60 pounds and nobody recognized me when I came home.

Tony.

You mean it's not like Stripes and DI's aren't like Sgt Hulka?



FMJ is a favorite, read where Kubrick was filming the scene where Gunny Hartman is dressing down the troops and R Lee Ermey went off script and ad-libbed the whole scene. It was fantastic...

Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Pyle killed in the role, literally

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
FMJ is a favorite, read where Kubrick was filming the scene where Gunny Hartman is dressing down the troops and R Lee Ermey went off script and ad-libbed the whole scene. It was fantastic...

Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Pyle killed the role, literally

IIRC, Ermey was brought on as a consultant, and ended up taking on the role.

Just watched this again, and Apocalypse Now for the first time, late last year.
FMJ, worth a rewatch from time to time.
AN, less so.

I watched it prior to going away to Army Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC in 1991 and it scared the crap out of me. It really was like much of that still in '91 and I even saw one of my Drill Sergeants hit a guy, well more like knock him over like a bowling pin. We were still all segregated by sex and it was all males in my Basic training company, never even saw a female until AIT later.

One morning we were in formation and the Drill says "I hear one of you threatened to kill someone else here and that's not ever going to be said again in my platoon!" This guy had an 82nd Airborne Div combat patch on from Grenada and he calmly set his smokey bear hat down, backed up about 12 feet then started running at the offender standing there at parade rest and BOOOOOM knocked him off his feet and on his ass and then lit him up.

That would never happen now.

Stood on the yellow footprints back in '88

Pretty much as depicted.
(A few even caught a "physical correction")

1989
"They say we can't curse and we can't lay hands on you. Any of you cocksuckers cross me, I'll toss you the fuck through the bay window and the rest of you will swear up and down that he jumped."

From what I've seen & heard from Marines who did their recruit training during the Vietnam War, they all say the boot camp part of FMJ is very accurate, aside from the part where Pyle kills Gunny Hartman. Back then the DIs would still put their hands on you. Also, as demand increased, the length of boot camp was reduced from 12-13 weeks to 8-9 weeks, which motivated the DIs to act even harsher given the shorter time frame they had to work with.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
It really was like much of that still in '91 and I even saw one of my Drill Sergeants hit a guy,

I, too, saw this happen there at B 4/13 in 1992. The drill sergeant followed it up by shouting "who you gonna tell?"

I was USAF and my boot camp was of course nothing like USMC but they were still working to weed out the non-hackers.
Example:
About 2 weeks in, my DI (Air Force Cross, CIB and DSM) called us all together and very seriously told us all that USAF regulations prohibited Homosexuals from serving. He then said he would be in his office if anyone wished to resign. He then left us alone. By this point, most of us were sick of Texas heat in a WWII wooden barrack so there was a general discussion to the effect that an admission of gayness probably would not follow anyone back into civilian life. So one brave soul volunteered to admit to an alternative lifestyle and entered the DIs office. The next thing we heard was the DI shouting "so you are a queer? Prove it! Suck my cock"!
Like that trick? Wait... Theres more:
After graduation, the DI led us out to where the GI bus was waiting to shuttle us to our next assignments. He started to walk away but turned back and said "if any one of you flip me off as the bus drives away, you will do boot camp all over again"! Was anyone thinking of flipping him off prior to that statement? I dont think so! Sure enough, as soon as the bus rolled, two idiots ran to the back and shot him the bird. He immediately jumped in his car (parked conveniently close by) overtook the bus and forced it to stop. The bird flippers were removed and not heard from again.
Diabolical!
There were some other incidents but all you GIs get the drift.

Very much like my experience at Ft Jackson in 87, got called every name in the book

I was 6'2" and 240, mostly muscle, they called me a fat body. They told me to squeal like a pig one day in formation, I refused, the next thing I know I was surrounded by about five DI's all screaming in my ear. There was this little chubby Mexican DI that ran towards me, grabbed my M16A1 and butt stroked me in the knee. I squealed. From then on they would say "hit it BigSwede" and I would start squealing like a pig for everyone's enjoyment


The other fat body had to say " Hungryyyy hungry jack, take two biscuits and put one baaaack you greedy fat bastard"

I came out of there at 220

I wasn't allowed any sweets like donuts, cake syrup or pudding. I was given one minute to finish my food, I did. I ate incredibly fast before joining

quote:

Originally posted by L90814:

I, too, saw this happen there at B 4/13 in 1992. The drill sergeant followed it up by shouting "who you gonna tell?"

Ha! I was C 2/13 there



"Forty Rounds"

I went into boot camp at Parris Island towards the end of September, 1979.

As someone already mentioned, except for the physical contact, boot camp was pretty much what you see in the movie.

During my time, I can attest to two instances of physical contact. The first was when a DI literally jumped onto the chest of a recruit. Now, this recruit who was white, was blatantly racist to the recruit next to him, who was black.

We were getting ready to do something as we were putting on our gear when a fight broke out between these two recruits. The on duty DI, who had been in recon pretty much ran over and drop kicked the white recruit. Needless to say, there were never any more fights.

The second was “minor” contact and involved me. We were in the head (latrine for you army folk) and several of us were taking a dump. Now, there are no individual stalls in the head………..it’s open, just like in the movie. A fellow recruit asked me to toss him a roll of $hit paper (toilet paper). Well, I did and it landed right in an unoccupied toilet.

So I had to go ask the on duty DI for a new roll of $hit paper. And, the on duty DI happened to be the Senior DI!!! After requesting to speak to the DI, I explained what happened. Well, the DI went and got another roll, walked over to me and planted to roll in my gut! LOL! It wasn’t to be mean or cruel, it was more like……don’t do that again you dumb $hit!!! lol

I was at Parris Island in 1964 so let me tell all of you what it was like in the Old Corps.

My time frame was, I left for LeJuene the week after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. I did not see any physical abuse during my time, (saw some that came pretty close), other than that Full Metal Jacket was pretty real.

I went in at 150# and wanted to come off at +200. Drill Instructor SSGT. Holmes said I did not have the frame to carry 200#. Graduation night he came in the squad bay and threw a bathroom scale in front of me, I climbed on at, 210.

If it's any consolation to my fellow Marines who went to San Diego or Paris Island, OCS at Quantico in the mid-80s was just like FMJ.

Actually I think the drill instructor took even more perverse pleasure in turning up the mental and physical heat. First, because as a Marine officer you better be able to execute under any amount of pressure/stress, and second because some candidates (about 1/3 who started in my platoon) would become officers and it was their opportunity to give us what for.

The Navy's Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS) was run by Marine Drill Instructors, and in 1985 it was run exactly like what you see in FMJ. The academic classes and daily swim training events were run by Navy instructors, and these were the only times we were not in Marine boot camp. Our de-mil'd Garands had plastic Garand stocks and were used for drill, field stripping and cleaning, and inspections. We were smoked at least once a week, ran obstacle courses, beach runs in the sand with rifles, marching with rifles, and other physical "Marine things" you see in the movie. We started with 72 in our class and graduated 27.

I'm not a Marine and will never claim to be, but I'm proud to say I'm a Marine Corps trained AOC.

I went to Parris Island in 82 and our DI would hit us with a broomstick that was used to measure equal distance between our racks after a field day (cleaning). The last straw for him was when someone spit on the steps of the stairwell after chow. He wanted to know who did it, No one fessed up to it and as punishment he had us guzzle our two canteens in the barracks while standing on line. We drank or tried to anyway 4 canteens of water. A couple of people puked in the barracks and then he had us grab our rifles and off to the parade deck for drill. After a long while of drilling in place he had us march off the deck and out of the corner of my eye it was one big wet spot where we all relieved ourselves. A few days later someone must’ve ratted him out and he was gone and we got a new DI. We saw him not long after leading some recruits doing ground maintenance, weed whacking and cutting grass. He saw a marching by and he was standing there with hands in his hips laughing, he was one crazy dude.

Thank you for your stories! I wish I would have served, but at 18 I had a wife and son.
I think I could have been a good Marine.